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Banish Blackheads for Good with Elizavecca’s Hell Pore Clean Up Mask

The Elizavecca Milkypiggy Hell-Pore Clean Up Mask is an oldie but a goodie. Its essentially a liquid pore strip that you can put wherever your face might need a little pore-cleaning love. Once it dries, just peel it off and rejoice as you stare in strange fascination at the gunk its pulled out. Even though this product is no new release-its over a year on the US markets-its so effective that I want to be sure to spread the word!

This mask is supposed to help manage excess sebum, blackheads and whiteheads, and dead skin. When used over time, it can help minimize the appearance of pores (as they are kept clean and unclogged).

This product has two main types of ingredients: skin moisturizers (mainly the plant extracts) and thickening agents (silica, polyvinylpyrrolidone, alcohols, etc). Please note that many people do find alcohol (and similar ingredients) to be irritating, so use with caution if you know or suspect you may have a sensitivity to said such ingredients.

Some ingredients of interest:

Charcoal is known for its absorbent properties. In skincare, it “sucks” gunk out of pores.

Titanium Dioxide is, of course, a sunscreen. Chances are it is being used for its pigmentation and/or thickening purposes in this product though.

Salicornia Herbacea Extract is also known as glasswort. This plant has potentially moisturizing properties. Prunus Serrulata Flower Extract, Camellia Japonica Flower Extract, Rosa Hybrid Flower Extract, and the like are all essentially moisturizing ingredients as well.

Rhus Semialata Gall Extract is a plant found in traditional Chinese medicine. It is used for its antibacterial and antioxidant properties.

Nelumbo Nucifera Flower Extract is actually made from lotus flowers. They are known for whitening/brightening of the skin and (more symbolically than actually)its purification. Similar to this is the ingredient Nymphaea Alba Flower Extract, or white water lilly, which is also know for its skin lightening properties.

Illicium Verum Fruit Extract is also known as anise. While it is a potent anti-acne ingredient, it is often a potential irritant.

What’s “sand” doing in here? Silica is often used in skincare products as an absorbent and thickening agent.

The last ingredient is yeast-based, fermentation being a popular trend in Korean skincare. Rumor has it this “obsession” with Saccharomyces and Galactomyces stems from the large portion of the Korean diet that consists of fermented foods. Fermentation seems to have a positive effect internally, when ingested, so why not try it on the face? It appears to solve a large number of common skin care woes (much like snail or starfish), and almost all brands have a yeast-based ferment first essence or toner to hop on this trend.

In all honesty, this ingredients list is nothing to write home about, at least, in my opinion. Unlike a serum or daily moisturizer, where subtle blends of ingredients can make or break a product for someone’s skin (especially over time), with a product that is meant to latch onto nastiness lurking in my pores in under 20 minutes, all I care about is whether or not it does just that. Its a lot like a cleanser or a cheap sheet mask; as long as they do the job placed in front of them, I’m happy. Anything more is considered an added bonus.

The Results:

I’ve been using this product for around 8 months now, about 1-2 times per week. It works partially like a clay mask, in that it leaves your skin smooth, but free of excess sebum. I tend to need most of my facial oils (sounds so weird when put that way, doesn’t it?) as my skin is quite dry, but for oilier skin types, using this mask 2-3 times a week would definitely help manage that “oil slick” feeling. I actually recommended this product in my oily skin shopping by skin type series a while back-you all should know it works!

It also functions much like a pore strip that you would traditionally put over a wet nose and then peel off once it hardened (and then stare at the aftermath for longer than you would like to admit to yourself). When you pull it off, clogs and blackheads (and peach fuzz-oh my!) will be standing up like little soldiers much like you would find with any other sort of pore strip.

Here is the process taking place on my hand (no one needs to see the contents of my nose pores on the Internet just yet):

Tips and Tricks

While this product will pull stuff out of your pores if applied to clean dry skin, why not get the most bang for your buck (and the maximum peel-off grossness) and allow a BHA to work its magic 25 minutes or so before using this mask? It ensures that every last bit of whatever nastiness is lurking within your pores will “loosen up” so it can easily be pulled away, and pulled away in its entirety. This method is especially effective on stubborn clogs and blackheads. One and done.

This product can be pretty brutal on the more sensitive areas of your face. While it won’t actually rip out your eyebrows, it will definitely feel like it is. This product is designed to remove dirt and impurities from deep inside your pores. Upper lip peach fuzz doesn’t stand a chance to put it mildly. If you wouldn’t put a Biore nose strip on the area, then you sure as hell shouldn’t put this product there.

Ripping it off like a waxing strip of band aid doesn’t work that well from my own personal experience. If you want big chunks or a full-face portion of mask to ogle over at what just came out of your face, then speed is definitely not an option.

If you apply the mask too thin, it won’t pick up very much in the way of pore debris and be a b**** to try to get off. If you apply it too thick, you will be waiting a very, very long time for it to dry (both from personal experience everyone). The ideal medium is really the thickness of a Biore pore strip or a business envelope. You’ll want just enough product to do the job and still be able to be pulled off intact.

Redness afterwards should be expected. You just peeled something stuck to your face off of your face after all. However, go ahead a show it a little love with a light moisturizer or sheet mask. I treat it much like waxing or shaving. If you don’t want irritation, throw on some oatmeal or snail or something.

You don’t have to put this on your entire face all at once. Sometimes just a nose, chin, or T-zone application is all you need. This product is harsh so don’t fix what isn’t broken (its a, um, peel-off mask, so… yeah). You may being saying “well, duh,” but you would be surprised how many people see the videos and ads for this product, featuring full-face masking, and think that that is how they have to use it each and every time. Think outside the box, or tube, in this case.

At around 12 $ for a whole tube of this stuff, it puts traditional pore strips (which around here cost about 12$ for a package of 8) to shame. It is not only slightly more effective, but much more versatile, not to mention so much cheaper. Even though I have dry skin, this product keeps my skin smooth and clog free (they’re bound to happen when you use 20,000 moisturizers a day just to stay flake-free). However, knowing so many people who use this (or perhaps I may have made them use it and gotten them hooked for life like some sort of K-beauty crack dealer) on their not only oily, but acne-prone skin. Its pulled out stubborn blackheads and clogs that they had been trying to remove for weeks, months even, in just under 45 minutes. A quick session with a BHA of choice to loosen up the gunk, and then the attack from the Hell Pore Clean Up Mask, gets their skin into a much smoother, clearer state after just one or two uses.

Rating: 2.5-I have major doubts if I will ever find anything more grossly satisfying…

Rating Scale:

1:Holy Snails! Its a Holy Grail!

2:Current-routine worthy (would buy again unless I found something better)

3:Meh, it was worth a try

4:Bleh, this was terrible. Don’t buy this. Ever.

So that’s it for me, singing its wonderful, peely praises. Have you ever tried this product before? Would you want to?